・・・In the 19th century, he notes, American universities came of age by looking toward two European role models: the Germans, with their emphasis on advanced research that could be disseminated to students in seminars and laboratories; and the British, who emphasized learning in small groups or tutorial sessions. But it was the German model, emphasizing research rather than undergraduate education, that came to dominate here, originally at Johns Hopkins. Other institutions resisted the Hopkins example at first -- a president of Harvard said it would suit his freshmen "about as well as a barnyard would suit a whale" -- but momentum seemed to be with the new approach, especially after what Cole calls "the giants of American capitalism" started making large grants to subsidize research. ・・・http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/12/AR2010021202410_pf.html

・・・A surging China has become Australia's No. 1 trading partner. It has pumped $40 billion worth of investments into the Australian economy in the past 18 months alone. China's 70,000 students help bankroll Australia's education system, and a half-million Chinese tourists a year keep Aussies employed as lifeguards, blackjack dealers and real estate brokers. Chinese trade and investment have insulated Australia from the global financial crisis more than any other developed nation. Australia is even speaking Chinese: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is the first Western leader to speak fluent Mandarin. ・・・
But all those ties haven't bought China much love Down Under. Opinion polls over the past five years show Australians are increasingly wary of the behemoth to their north. Rudd, while embracing Chinese trade, has moved to balance relations with Beijing by bolstering military and diplomatic ties with Australia's longtime superpower ally, the United States.
In April, Rudd's government announced Australia's biggest military build-up since World War II and a report by the Ministry of Defense made it clear that China was the reason. ・・・
Despite its economic inroads, China has made economic and political blunders that have infuriated, and occasionally amused, many Australians. ・・・
＜一つは、リオティント事件（コラム#3401、3410、3462）だ。＞
And it's not just ore that has Australians worried.
Last year, Chinese diplomats demanded that a film about a Chinese dissident be pulled from the Melbourne Film Festival. It wasn't, and although it was an obscure movie about an obscure topic, hundreds flocked to the premiere. Chinese diplomats also ordered Chinese students in Australia to participate in anti-Tibetan protests in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. ・・・http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/13/AR2010021303651_pf.html

こういうわけで、オーストラリアの軍事力増強ぶりと、豪米の軍事上の結びつきの強化が以下のように進展しています。↓

・・・behind the scenes, the United States and Australia were working to strengthen their security and intelligence ties with a view to countering a rising China. ・・・
Australia in 2005 became one of the few countries to have a special U.S. immigration category of its own -- the E-3 visa that grants 10,500 young Australians the right to work in the United States for at least two years.
The Bush administration also made it easier for Australian defense companies to obtain American military technology. The United States provided Australia's navy with equipment to make its submarines run quieter. The two countries expanded their satellite intelligence gathering operation, the Joint Defense Space Research Facility, in central Australia, and the United States granted Australia -- along with Britain -- almost unfettered access to real-time military intelligence.
In September 2007, Bush and Howard signed the U.S.-Australia Treaty on Defense Trade Cooperation although it awaits ratification in the U.S. Senate. ・・・
In April of last year, Rudd's government announced a massive military expansion, including 100 new F-35 fighters, a doubling of the submarine fleet, cruise missiles and powerful new surface warships. U.S. defense contractors will provide much of the equipment or the designs. ・・・
Polling by the Lowy Institute over the past five years has documented a significant shift in Australia's mood away from China. In last year's poll, more than half of the respondents said they were uncomfortable with China's rise. By way of comparison, the poll indicated that support for the alliance with the United States was the highest since the think-tank began asking the question in 2006. ・・・http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/13/AR2010021303460_pf.html

米豪関係↑に比べて、宗主国・属国関係であるにもかかわらず、安全保障面で米日関係がいかに希薄であるか、よくよくお考えいただきたい。

日本の金融・財政状況についてのファイナンシャルタイムスの冷静な分析に耳を傾けよう。↓

・・・＜Jaｐan＞’s gross debt towards 200 per cent of gross domestic product. ・・・One should be wary about explaining away such aberrations. Yet by several criteria, Japan is different. First, gross debt levels are misleading. Japan’s debt, after netting off the state’s own holdings, is less than 100 per cent of GDP. Second, the cost of servicing its debt is low, at roughly 1.3 per cent of GDP. That compares with 1.8 per cent in the US, 2.3 per cent in the UK and 5.3 per cent in Italy. Third, Japan has fiscal wiggle room: sales tax is just 5 per cent. Fourth, 95 per cent of Japan’s debt is domestically owned. Fickle foreigners have almost no sway. Indeed, Japan’s problem is still an excess of savings. Banks are awash with deposits that they need to place somewhere. For some time yet, the government will not find it hard to secure buyers for JGBs. Japan’s debt problem will be worked out in the family. ・・・
In one area, though, it is being too complacent. That is in the fight against deflation. ・・・http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cb125274-14e3-11df-8f1d-00144feab49a.html

米国における恋愛至上主義の結婚観、比較的新しいもんなんだね。↓

・・・As recently as the 1930s, American men ranked mutual attraction as only the fourth most important quality for a relationship, while women had it even lower, placing it fifth (in a 1956 survey, women dropped it all the way to sixth). But in recent decades, love has climbed to No. 1, accompanied by a rise in the importance of looks, which suggests that our romance with romance is long on style and short on substance. ・・・
＜米国人は、そろそろ、昔の結婚観に戻るべきだ。＞
・・・those most in love when they marry are also the most likely to get divorced.
And the chemical attraction that many people rely on to choose a partner has been found to fade "to neutrality" in two to three years. ・・・
As recently as the 1930s, American men ranked mutual attraction as only the fourth most important quality for a relationship, while women had it even lower, placing it fifth (in a 1956 survey, women dropped it all the way to sixth). But in recent decades, love has climbed to No. 1, accompanied by a rise in the importance of looks, which suggests that our romance with romance is long on style and short on substance. ・・・
・・・people with a very limited say in choosing their own spouses eventually became happier with their relationships than people with the freedom to choose anyone they wanted.・・・http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-trees14-2010feb14,0,6122560.story
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